Well, as if you couldn't tell, we are now in the proccess of reformatting
RPGamer. I personally spent basically my entire weekend working non-stop to get this up and
running, along with a bunch of other people. Anyway, this column here should look the way it's
supposed to, which is more than I can say for all my recent columns, I had a weird little problem
in my code that gave the updater script problems you see. Anyway, enjoy the new look, and get
those questions in.

You know, now I have WAY too much intro space. I'll have to do something about that. Actually,
there's a few things I'm not too sure about with this design. Any suggestions are welcome...
except one. I can't change where I end the left bar. I can (and probably will) cut this bar on
the right a bit though. Mainly I'm just wondering about the responses being the way they are.
Oh, and by the way, I don't want any letters of the format "____ looks awful." I would prefer the
format "You know what would look better than ____? If you did ____." The best would be that last
one with an actual question thrown in too.

I sent this to Brad, but he never responded, so I'm giving it to YOU! I'll
give my opinion on Ultimecia soon, but let's review some facts first.

I've just beaten Final Fantasy VIII and I was thinking about the
sorceresses. I noticed that all the sorceri were human, yet had some inhuman
features. Edea had that curly horn and the veins on her face; Adel was a
huge, grey-skinned, manly lady that could move her hair with her own will;
Ultimecia had those shredded black wings; and don't forget that slug-like
sorceress that you fight during time compression. It got me thinking that
when a sorceress uses her powers, her looks gradually change. Also, since
Edea looked like a normal lady at the end of FFVIII, I'm guessing that the
weird looks go away if the sorceress stops using her powers. I then
speculated as to what Rinoa might look like if she used her powers a lot,
and I came to a startling thought:

Rinoa might look like Ultimecia if she uses her powers a lot, therefore
Ultimecia might be Rinoa!

How would I come to this conclusion? Well, let's see what we know.

1. Ultimecia is from the future. The game never says how distant a
future this is. Still, Ultimecia knows about Odine's time invention, so it
can't be so distant that someone would forget about Odine's invention.

2. Ultimecia has wings. I thought that Rinoa would definitely have
wings if her looks changed. Coincidence?

3. At Edea's house, Rinoa makes a speech about Squall will someday
kill her. That never seemed to happen in the game, but when I played, Squall
dealt the final blow to Ultimecia.

What do you make of this? I just thought that since we knew so little about
Ultimecia, maybe I could fill in her past. I just can't think of why Rinoa
would want to become Ultimecia, though...

Peter "Oh! Blood! What is it!?" Williams

Googleshng:That's a very interesting theory. I can't
really find any GAPING holes in it... I can find a couple little silly ones though. Why
doesn't she have a big demonic Angelo? Why can't Squall summon Griever? Finally, why
would ANYONE change their name to Ultimecia? That's just plain bad... but then Rinoa is
a pretty funky name too. Hey, if I ever play FF8 again, maybe I'll call her Ultimecia
just for confusion, and call Squall Laguna'sKid. 8)

Science Lesson!

Hi Googs. Can I call you that? No? Okay, Googs.

So anyway, you know how in Xenogears Citan says "It feels like you sacked
your saccules and tickled your utricles one too many times! Wow, dizzy!" It
makes perfect sense if you know what saccules and utricles are. Actually
they're little organs in your inner ears that control your sense of balance.
So, jumping off of Gears would mess with them, making you dizzy. See?
Bio II is good for something after all.

And Sailor Moon R: The Movie kicks booty. Now I have something to do on
spring break.

~~SuperStar Moppy

Googleshng:Of course Bio 2 is good for something!
Helps a lot against Phunbaba! </bad joke> Anyway, that's a science lesson worthy
of having a hypercard stack in the background (and THAT'S a reference so obscure I doubt
many people will get it). Thanks. As for the R movie... I hear there's a dubbed version
now. That fills me with a morbid curiousity as to how censored it is.

Greed

OK Google sorry that this is a FFT question, i know there are loads of
'em asked, but i'm pretty scared...I've been staedilt raising faith and
brave on my characters, and my best magic user has 85 faith....Ok now
after the last 4 battles it's flashed "warning!" and he's said something
to the effect of "i'm too religious to fight". Is he going to leave
after a certain number of battles? Can i lower faith permenantly with
"solution". What should i do????
Thanks for listening, I love the Q&A section, i've been following it for
a couple weeks now. I used to think i knew so much about RPG's....well
there are so many i've never played... Well I'll be sure to write
again, so hope you get used to seeing my patented signature-

~Deyat

Googleshng:Yes. It is very bad to raise your faith
too high. I believe it makes the character permanently leave your party. You can try
lowering your faith to fix it, but I don't recall if that works. Oh, and if I'm wrong
on this, just let it slide unless you're Deyat. No flooding my mailbox with corrections.
I think I'm right though.

I may not know art, but I know what I like, and hey! I know art!

Google,

I'm sorry for bringing up this whole 'art' debate again but someone over
the weekend(I think Brad...) brought up the fact that video games aren't
considered art because they were made to make money. I'd like to point out
that EVERY SINGLE PIECE of 'fine art' was made by the artist to put food on
the table. I stopped having faith in the school systems after my English
teacher told us that Shakespeare wrote his plays only because he had
something to say to the world. That's just total BS. He wrote Hamlet, Romeo
& Juliet, and all the rest to make himself some quick cash, he just happened
to also be a brilliant writer.

So IMHO, a video game is art if the game's designers had 'something to say'
to the world of us RPGamers. Money is always the top priority for making
something, at least if your job is an artist of some kind. But, as you can
tell, not all game designers have the drive to put in that little bit extra,
and what they give to us is not art. But that shouldn't stop us from looking
for the games that have shown to us that the designers had a grander dream
than mere wealth. Those games are art.

-Red Raven, who thought this was too short to be an editorial

Googleshng:Well, you aren't getting an arguement
here, but here's a rewording just for the sake of having a response. Anything that someone
spends as much time on as a book, or a painting, or a game, they deserve to be paid for.
Some people will just whip something like that out for quick cash, and that's not art.
On the other hand, sometimes someone has a wonderful idea, and they cultivate it using
one of those mediums into a wonderful thing. Then it's art. So, not all games are art,
for example, Mortal Kombat 3 isn't (no, not because it's a fighting game, because it's
a mindless sequel!), but Xenogears certainly is. Similarly, while, say, whatever derivitive
romantic or slapstick comedy is in theaters right now isn't art, Dark City is.

In Front Mission 3, near the end of the game when you're starting the
assault on the battle platform, you have to split your party into two
teams. One is the outside attack force and the other team must go in to
destroy the generator. Well, being an idiot as I'm prone to do at
times, I didn't level up my team equally, so I've got 4
super-powerhouses and 4 weaklings. I'm certain I'll be spending a good
amount of time in the simulator to level these guys up, but what I want
to know is which team has the tougher task? Is the inside assault the
tougher one as I think it is? Thanks for any help to clear this up for
me.

-Blackhawk

Googleshng:I came across the exact same problem back
when I was there. Spent a LONG time in the simulator, mostly just to get the money to
give them decent wanzers really. Anyway, if you want some really good EXP, go to RPGamer's
FM3 Network FAQ, check out all the links in Japan. One of those gives you a battle in
a funky industrial kind of place full of like 1300 HP wanzers piloted by Imaginary numbers.
If you so much as hit one you get around 200 EXP. Getting more AP though is a question
of doing really easy fights, not hard. Oh, and the outside is one fight, the inside is
like 5. The difficulty is probably SLIGHTLY harder on the inside though, depends how
you're set up.

Don't try this at home.

S'up Goog,

I know the letter is a little late. I have have not read your column lately
because I was too busy playing FM3. So I'm catching up with the archive.
Anyways, while playing FM3 nonstop, I stumbled upon, I believe, a secret
wanzer! Here's how to get it. In Emma's scenario, after the battle at the
observatory, near the end of the game, go to the Armored Kinkakuji website.
(ARMOREDKIN/JAPAN/OTHER) Then check out the third BBS in the BBS catagory.
You will find a phone number: 555(XKR)224. Now, go to the Lawspite website.
(AUSPEND/AUSRALIA/OTHER) In the garbrage pit, use the Inferno Dialer and
dial the number. You will then recieve the secret wanzer, HOSHUN MK112!
You must put the parts together yourselves. This baby has a powerful Heavy
Plasma Gun. With a range of 9 squares and stronger then a melee weapon,
this thing is unstoppable! Plus, once fully upgraded, it has the best
stats. The only draw back is that the Plasma Gun cost 15AP to use! So I
recomend equipping it with a melee weapon or a rifle also. There's more!
Its battle skill is awesome! Body Smash allows for 1-hit kill! I killed
the final boss easily! It takes up 5 slots though. AP-0 is great. It
allows you to perform action for free. Great for the Plasma Gun! I don't
know the skill for the body. Right now, I'm working on obtaining the
HOSHUN MK112 for Alisa's scenario. I belive you can get it the same way,
but I'm not sure when you can get it. But I will find out. Meanwhile, see
if you can find a Xenogears cameo. Hint: it's on the 'net. until then,
happy gaming!

Shiro "Secret Agent Man" Takemura

Googleshng:Ok, let me just say this. I don't want
to see any letters or editorials on how easy that there makes the game. It's a very very
hidden little easter egg that, while it CAN be found just through looking really hard,
is not the kind of thing you can say is right out in the open. Feel free to play around
with it, or see if you can find it without cheating and looking passwords up in walkthroughs.
Just don't you all go getting this thing and then expecting the game to present a challenge
afterwards. 8)

Quickies

Love the new layout.

Chesh

Thanks.

Wow. It's awesome. Kudos to the designers.
-Matt

What's funny is that I got both of these letters before the redesign was
fully put up. Still, thanks.

Since you like Haikus so much, read Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. The main character
uses them a lot!

ShinKarasu
The TRU Raven

I don't like haiku.
You must be thinking of Brad.
Make good Quickies though.

I love the smell of dead zombies in the morning.

Resident Evil Code:Veronica oh how I miss her

Need Money!

Hey Google I got some quotes from games that you can guess, so, here we go....

"Think a 'bear' like me could hep you out?"

Sabin, FF6

"Skip the grapes and go for the shoulder rub. She has STRONG hands...."

Working Designs sounding... Lunar? Maybe Grandia?

"Zombie Paper worked, so I wonder if someone will come up with 'Pretty Girl
Paper'."
-Skapunker

Earthbound. Some guy. Oh, no room for the rest of these, but Young Master must be from Xenogears.
so I got at least half right!

The Last Laugh:

Here's your CC pic.

OK, sorry this is up so late, but you've had purdy piktures to look at while you waited.
8) Anyway, I hope you all like the redesign, and I'll see you around tomorrow... you
know, metaphorically. I won't actually see you.